


feels like the start of something

by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel



Series: TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel's Asexuality Fics [9]
Category: Avengers, Avengers (2012), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (2011)
Genre: A/B/O verse, Asexuality, Gender Discrimination, Gender Roles, M/M, SHIELD, Sexual Harrassment, TW: attempted rape (non-graphic), Trope Subversion, pre-movie canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-25
Updated: 2013-06-25
Packaged: 2017-12-16 03:47:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/857412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel/pseuds/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint is an omega who isn't interested in mating. Ever. That doesn't mean he wouldn't like a romantic partner, though. Unfortunately, he's never found anyone who was okay with the whole lack of interest thing... but there might be hope yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	feels like the start of something

**Author's Note:**

> So, when A/B/O fics started appearing everywhere, I swore I would have nothing to do with them, because it was all smut and kink and seriously, _not my thing_. But then there were fics that subverted the trope a bit, and I read some of those? And then I started thinking about what asexuality and other non-heterosexual orientations would look like in the A/B/O verse, and I left a [prompt](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/16019.html?thread=34467731#t34467731) at avengerkink. But no one answered it, so I ended up writing it myself. *resigned sigh*

**feels like the start of something**

Before he went into heat for the first time, Clint spent his entire life hearing about how when an omega went into heat, they basically became willing, eager sex toys.

Well, maybe that was kind of harsh, Clint had to admit, but growing up in the circus meant that half of Clint’s unofficial sex education consisted of overhearing alphas talk about how omegas in heat smelled and felt and the way they begged to have an alpha’s dick inside them, while the other half was secretly listening to omegas giggle about alphas domineering behaviour when they thought Clint wasn’t around (because apparently no one cared if Clint heard omegas being treated as sex objects, but thought he was too young to hear about how the omegas felt about the whole heat thing).

Clint had never exactly been the traditional subservient omega type; Barney called him a mouthy disobedient little shit, which yeah, was pretty accurate. Clint himself didn’t get why most omegas seemed to care so much about what alphas thought of them, or why heats or bonding with one was such a big deal, but he always figured it was one of those grown-up things that would probably make more sense when he was older.

Clint’s first heat came on unusually early, when he was thirteen, and even for a first heat it was strong. Clint himself didn’t notice the early signs, and had no idea what was going on until suddenly he felt like he was burning up and something itched under his skin, but even then he only got a clue when an alpha a few years older than him crowded into his space with dark eyes and the heavy, musky scent of deep arousal.

If it had been a movie or a TV show, Clint would have gone weak at the knees and bashfully asked the other boy to be gentle. Instead, Clint bolted. The hungry look in the alpha’s eyed had inspired nothing but panicked terror, and far from wanting to be touched, Clint just wanted to get the fuck _away_.

He sprinted out of the tent and heard swearing and the thud of feet behind him, and ploughed through the crowds without caring who he bumped into or shoved. Noses turned in his direction as he weaved his way through, nostrils flaring as he passed, and to Clint’s horror a couple of young guys, grinning predatorily, joined the chase.

It was the most terrifying fifteen minutes of Clint’s life. Fortunately for him the scene attracted enough attention that Clarice and Heavy realised what was going on. Clarice was the circus’s bearded lady, and Heavy was the circus strongman: they were also a strapping omega/omega couple who were more than capable of dealing with a bunch of skinny youthful alphas. Clarice shepherded Clint into their caravan while Heavy punched one of the young alphas in the face, and the pair let Clint stay there for his entire heat, shaking and sweating apart, even though he stank the place out.

Heavy made him like a dozen cups of herbal tea out of stuff that was supposed to reduce the severity of an omega’s heat, and showed him later how tansy and parsley could be used to make special herbal teas that would stop him getting pregnant from a heat, if he couldn’t get his hands on the right pills afterwards.

Clint remembered asking Heavy why he hadn’t found any of the alphas chasing him attractive, like he was supposed to.

“Sometimes you need to wait for the right alpha, kid,” Heavy had shrugged. “And sometimes there just isn’t one.”

Barney had always been contemptuous of Clint’s omega status, but he’d been weirdly approving when he realised after Clint’s first couple of heats that Clint would rather kick an alpha in the teeth than let them have their way with him. He taught Clint how to punch and snarl at an alphas who thought they were entitled to something, and told Clint that if he ever got himself pinned down and couldn’t get free, grabbing the fucker by the balls and twisting would put the bastard’s mind off screwing for a good long while.

This was pretty much the last helpful thing Barney ever did for him; he cut loose a few months later, leaving Clint at the circus to manage on his own. Clint learnt pretty quickly that Barney was right about the balls thing, and as soon as he was experienced enough to recognise the signs, any time he felt a heat coming on he sequestered himself someplace that was hard to get to. He even spent one memorable heat up a tree, because he’d moved on from the circus by then and hadn’t been able to find anywhere safe, and at least up a tree he could kick any alphas in the head before they got close.

By the time Clint was in his twenties, he’d decided that when it came to omegas in heat, all alphas were assholes. Even the ones who were all kind and respectful most of the time acted like you owed them something as soon as you showed any sign of going into heat, and that was if they were _nice._ A lot of the time, alphas just tried to rape anyone who was in heat. Even being bonded to another alpha didn’t always stop alphas from trying something, if an omega’s alpha wasn’t actually present when they went into heat. 

Clint tried dating betas and even other omegas a few times, but it always went horribly. It wasn’t all that uncommon for some omegas to have a low sex drive when they weren’t in heat, but as soon as it became clear that Clint wasn’t up for sex even then? Relationship _over_. Betas seemed to experience arousal at like, completely random times – some of them seemed to be aroused practically all the time – and even gay omegas desperately wanted to mate as soon as their heat rolled around, and thought Clint was weird for not being the same way. It wasn’t even that Clint didn’t have a libido, because obviously he did: he went into heat like every other omega. He just had no interest in actually mating, that was all. Eventually Clint gave up trying to find a partner, and just tried to avoid attracting the interest of any alphas.

It was one of the reasons why Clint liked working at SHIELD so much: they had really strict sexual harassment policies, and personnel were generally fairly good about following them. When Clint first joined he had to sit through ha bunch of educational videos about sexual orientation, gender, and appropriate behaviour, which were pretty eye-opening. It turned out that a lot of the shit Clint had been through he could have pressed charges for, if he’d wanted to, especially while he was still underage. But there was a bit in one of the videos about orientation alignments, and a thing called the Kinsey Scale, which indicated the degree of attraction people felt to their own, opposite, or perpendicular sex: it went from major heterosexual attraction (omega/alpha, alpha/omega, and beta/beta), through minor heterosexual attraction (like beta/omega), to homosexual attraction (omega/omega and alpha/alpha).

The interesting part for Clint, though, was the classification X – meaning someone who wasn’t attracted to any sex at all. According to the Kinsey Scale, an omega who didn’t want to fuck anybody, like Clint, was an O-X. It was nice to find out that he wasn’t just screwed up somehow, like he’d always thought.

Although, just because SHIELD was generally good about the sexual harassment thing, didn’t mean there weren’t alphas who disapproved of the fact that Clint didn’t submit easily, and would argue with any order he thought was stupid. Most of the handlers were alphas, and Clint got a reputation for being ‘difficult’, which meant that he was passed around handlers until he ended up with Agent Coulson.

Coulson was one of those alphas who were in control of themselves at all times, and commanding without being aggressive. He also turned out to be surprisingly badass, and unlike every other handler Clint had ever had, he didn’t care about some omega giving him shit as long as said omega did his actual job. At some point Clint’s frustrated insubordination turned into a kind of bantering camaraderie, that only looked like insubordination on the surface. Clint got the feeling that his smart-ass comments actually amused Coulson, and the guy treated Clint like him having a backbone was something to be respected, instead of trying to stomp it out of him.

Coulson, Clint had decided after a few months of working with him, was alright. He and Clint had worked well together ever since.

* * *

About a year before the whole hammer thing at Puente Antiguo, Clint was off-duty and hanging out in the air ducts on base. This wasn’t as random as it seemed: it was actually part of a personal project to map out the entire vent system in his head, so that if he needed to, Clint could get from any point in the base to another without actually ever needing to step foot in a hallway. Call him paranoid, but Clint knew from experience that there were times when it was best to go undetected.

Clint was lying on his stomach in front of one of the vents, contemplating the quickest path to the cafeteria, when his nose caught a whiff of something pungent. Senses going on high alert, Clint deliberately flared his nostrils and breathed in deeply. Almost immediately, he winced. Someone had just gone into heat, and pretty strongly, too. Whoever it was, Clint guessed that they weren’t on the medication that most SHIELD employees took to make their heats go more smoothly; sometimes it conflicted with other medications, or people’s hormones went wonky so they took a break from the pills until things evened out. Whatever the reason, there was an omega somewhere close who smelt fucking _ripe._ Clint felt a stirring of concern.

The in-heat smell grew stronger, and Clint realised that whoever it was, they were coming this way. Unfortunately, he could also smell alpha scent drifting from the opposite end of the corridor, which meant that the omega in question was likely to run smack into what smelt like a group of alphas coming from the opposite direction. Clint braced himself on his elbows, and peered alertly through the air vent.

He saw Agent Matthews first, hurrying down the corridor with a look of agitation, heat-scent coming off her in waves. Then she suddenly stopped, and Clint heard a low laugh from just out of sight.

He recognised that laugh. Agent Quinn was a junior agent who had only been with SHIELD a few months, and while Clint had never seen her do anything that was outright inappropriate, the way she leered thoughtfully at the omegas on base, sometimes, had always put Clint on his guard. As he watched, Quinn stepped forward into view, flanked by two other junior agents, Smith and Davidson, all three of them emanating a scent of rapidly-deepening arousal.

_ Shit. _

“Hey there,” Smith drawled, the three alphas unconsciously spreading out into a broader formation, blocking off the hallway. Clint clenched his teeth, and waited. There were no rules against crowding a corridor…

Quinn breathed in deeply, scenting the air, and gave a smile that could only be described as _predatory._ She took a step forward, and so did the others.

“Excuse me,” Matthews said, and Clint noted with pleased approval that her voice remained firm and unwavering, even though she had to know the danger she was in.

Quinn just laughed again, and stepped closer, and Matthews took a tiny step back.

Clint snarled to himself, and prepared to exit the vents in a hurry. A bunch of alphas triggered by an omega in heat weren’t going to be scared off easily, especially by an omega, but Clint was pretty damn good at holding his own, and his chances of giving Matthews long enough to get away were fairly good. He was about to knock the vent out of the ceiling so he could drop down out of the air ducts and give them hell when there was a furious call down the hallway.

“ _BACK OFF!_ ”

Coulson.

The bellow was infused with as much authority as possible, so Clint wasn’t surprised when the aroused alphas checked for a moment. It was long enough for Coulson to stride down the hallway with the barely-checked anger and raw grace of a tiger, and interpose himself between Matthews and the other alphas.

“Agent Matthews. Are you unharmed?” he asked with perfect calm, although Clint knew him well enough to hear the crisp tone of fury in his voice.

“F-fine,” Matthews managed shakily: to her credit, she was holding it together pretty well, despite her heat and the situation she was in.

Quinn let out a low growl, and Coulson stared her down.

“You can’t keep us from her!” Smith said angrily, his hormones clearly clouding his judgement.

“You’re mistaken.” Over his shoulder: “Matthews. Back down the hallway. _Now_.”

He said it just in time, because Quinn and Smith surged forward a second later, their arousal and aggression overwhelming whatever sense they had left. It took Coulson barely thirty seconds to knock Smith unconscious and do that move where he spun Quinn into the floor and ended up kneeling on her back and holding her hands behind her. Quinn howled and tried to break free, but Coulson managed to grip both her wrists in one hand and used the other to press against the artery in her neck until she passed out.

Davidson – clearly the most easily cowed of the three – seeing what had happened to the other two, stammered a disjointed apology and backed away as Coulson raised his head to stare at him.

Nodding in grim satisfaction, Coulson stood, and fell back into his usual calm, commanding demeanour as he turned towards Matthews, who was standing uncertainly further down the corridor.

The harsh lines of Coulson’s expression smoothed away.

“Agent Matthews.” Coulson’s voice was gentle, and as unthreatening as possible. “Allow me to escort you to Medical. Do you have an alpha, and are they on base?”

“Yeah,” Matthews confirmed, watching Coulson with a mix of lust and wariness.

“Good,” Coulson said mildly. “It shouldn’t take long to arrange for them to join you. They can meet you down in Medical.” He gave Matthews the reassuring smile that Clint had seen a hundred times over the years.

“Okay,” Matthews agreed, some of her caution leaking away in the face of that smile.

Clint watched the two of them walk away. The entire time, despite Coulson being an alpha, there hadn’t been the slightest hint of arousal in Coulson’s body language or scent. It was as steady as ever.

Clint didn’t move from his spot in the vents for a long time.

* * *

Phil was filling out paperwork when there was a quiet shift of metal. Phil glanced up in time to see Clint Barton drop down out of the air duct system, which was now missing a vent cover. Since Clint was unharmed (although his scent was a little agitated), and Phil knew that he’d put the vent cover back into place before he left, Phil continued with his paperwork.

There was a uncharacteristic moment of hesitation from Clint.

“Good afternoon, Barton,” Phil said, without looking up. “Is there something I can help you with?”

When there was nothing but more hesitation, Phil put down his pen and gave Clint his full attention.

“Clint. What is it?”

Clint swallowed, and shifted a little on his feet. Phil was well-familiar with this mannerism. It showed up whenever Clint was nervous, or there were too many alphas around, or his heat was only a couple of days away. As mannerisms went it was small, but telling, and thinking about it for too long tended to make Phil angry.

“I was in the vents, the other day, when Agent Matthews went into heat. And uh, I was going to drop down and kick their asses, but then you kind of came along and did it for me. It was pretty badass, boss.”

“Thank you,” Phil acknowledged. He was very curious about where this conversation was going.

Clint shifted on his feet again.

“I was… sort of wondering, though… about how you didn’t seem affected at all. With an omega in heat right under your nose and you being an alpha. Sir.”

Clint kept his face straight and his tone even, despite the discomfort that Phil could read in the lines of his body. For some reason this was important to Clint, even if he thought he might be overstepping his bounds in asking.

Phil shrugged, and decided to go with honesty.

“I have no interest in mating. Even the scent of an omega in heat doesn’t do anything for me. There’s nothing wrong, I’m just… not interested.” He gave a Clint a faint smile. “Complete A-X on the Kinsey Scale.”

“Oh.” Clint stared at him, and Phil started to get an inkling of where this conversation was going. “So you… right. Okay.”

There was an awkward pause. Phil raised an eyebrow when Clint just stood there, looking lost. Clint flushed, but took the cue to keep talking.

“Is it… just sex that you’re not interested in?” Clint asked carefully. “Or… dating?”

Apparently this conversation _was_ going where Phil had thought it was. Phil leaned back in his chair and smiled at Clint.

“I’m actually quite interested in dating,” he admitted ruefully. “Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find a partner willing to accommodate my lack of desire for sex. To tell you the truth, I gave up looking a while ago. Why do you ask?” Phil did his best to keep his expression open and friendly, and tried not to get his hopes up too much. Even if Clint didn’t want to have sex either, that didn’t necessarily mean that he was interested in Phil.

“I’m Kinsey O-X,” Clint blurted out.

“I thought you might be,” Phil agreed calmly. Clint flushed again, and rubbed the back of his head.

“Yeah, well, considering I have to report my heats and non-existent partners to you, it wasn’t exactly hard to guess,” Clint muttered. “Uh, I guess, what I’m asking is, would you, uh, maybe like to get a coffee sometime, or something?” He looked steadfastly at the top of Phil’s desk, still rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously.

Phil smiled widely.

“That would be great,” he told Clint, allowing pleasure to infuse his tone.

Clint looked up, to meet Phil’s gaze a little shyly, his own, hopeful smile appearing.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Phil confirmed.

“Well. Okay then.” The hand Clint had been using to rub the back of his neck dropped to his side, and he grinned at Phil. 

“Tomorrow?” Phil suggested. “There’s a nice little café a few blocks from here.”

“Yeah, okay.” Clint looked happier than Phil had ever seen him. “Uh, later then, boss.” He sent Phil one more delighted grin, and left Phil’s office.

Phil went back to working on his pile of paperwork, but his own smile didn’t fade at all.

**Author's Note:**

> The stuff about the herbal teas came from links from [this discussion](http://cypher.dreamwidth.org/20264.html). Also, I spent waaaay too much time lying awake at one in the morning, trying to figure out how an A/B/O Kinsey Scale would work.
> 
> Also, in the comments, someone asked me about why the A/B/O verse is heteronormative. You can read their comment and my reply [here](http://archiveofourown.org/comments/3801734).


End file.
